Institutional Homicide: Inside the Push for Euthanasia, with Alex Schadenberg

Do you trust medical providers with the decision to end your life?
Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC). And the Chairperson for EPC-International since November 2007. Alex has authored articles published in newspapers world-wide and maintains the world's most widely-read blog on issues related to assisted death: www.epcblog.org. The EPC blog has published more than 5500 articles and has had 9 million viewers.
Alex co-produced the Fatal Flaws film, the Euthanasia Deception documentary and the film Turningthe Tide and published the book, Exposing Vulnerable People to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.
You can reach Alex at [e-mail]
and visit EPC's website at epcc.ca/
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[@Loufi303]

important discussion. I am from the Netherlands. the slippery slope is real. Here, a 17 year old was given euthanasia, because she had 'untreatable' BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER. (there is protest and call for the judicial system to look into this by a subset of reform-minded mental health care professionals). We just throw people away if they are of no use economically (cf. Monoculture by F.S. Michaels). On the one hand, people whine about 'the nanny state' while at the same time we cavalierly abandon people who direly need help and assistance, possibly for life. My opinion: we are all in this together; we are collectively responsbile for each other. 2) this is also about the increasing medicalisation of our lives and our suffering. We are sold comfort by a consumerist culture as our birthright and it has eroded our ability to tolerate - let alone understand - human suffering (snow flake generation). 3) I am not religious, but I do not understand the 'respect' people seem to have for suicide as a choice: killing someone, even if you are your own victim, is murder. 4) dying is a process, and at best a very beautiful experience of ego resolution and absorption in The All, cosmic energy which humans experience as love. (I've had such a 'mystical' experience at 30, probably akin to a near-death-experience, be it without tunnel or 'light'). We are robbing people of this natural experience with these brute medical 'procedures', which i find incredibly cruel and sad. Thanks for this vital discussion.

[@Jean-ds9vk]

I took down my previous comment as I realized it was too soon to try to give my perspective, especially in chat form, as a former Hospice Nurse in Washington State. For context, during my 25 year career I have walked with 1200+ individuals and families in navigating the End of Life process and been at the bedside of approximately 200 people at the moment of death. My experience is that there is a massive lack of awareness and conversation about the End of Life process. Since most families will end up seeking assistance from the current medical establishment in caring for their loved ones, I see the need for a realistic discussion about this topic so people can have informed navigation in quite a schizophrenic system. I appreciated many of the concerns that were addressed by this speaker, and I also question how much direct experience he has has with the actively dying as some of his promises regarding what palliative care are not accurate or available to most. Also in my experience, the small number of people that do choose medically assisted suicide die within 5-15 minutes of ingestion. To imply that this is a horrible and lengthy experience for everyone while a natural death is or can always be smooth sailing is,in reality, inaccurate. What I would like to see is people be able to have conversations about their End of Life choices so that they and their families are more prepared to make clear but difficult decisions and not pushed along by any particular ideology in the current medical establishment. I do appreciate your work, and thank you for bringing these difficult conversations to attention.

[@theradicalcenter]

Thank you very much for sharing this perspective.

[@Jean-ds9vk]

@@theradicalcenter Hi Leslie. I would like to offer to chat with you about this subject of death and dying and/ or more importantly on the wider subject of the current medical establishment in general and how to help people navigate it. I have been struggling to sort out how to ‘not throw the Baby out with the bath water’ so to speak since I left the profession 3 years ago. My intention is not to Convince you of adopting my thoughts as my perspective too is always changing with new information or insights. I find you to be an open minded and compassionate person, and this could open up a line of conversation with the group of ladies that gather on your channel. I know you are a busy lady, so no offense taken if you don’t follow up on this offer. Please know that I have so much appreciated all the work you do to put yourself out there to have these conversations. I look forward to your continued work. Thanks. Jean

[@janetbuchanan148]

This discussion is sounding an awful lot like the thousands of patients who died in our hospitals over the last 3+ years - Remdesivir, kidney failure, morphine, ventilator, death. There are so many documented testimonies to this.

[@NinjaKittyBonks]

This push, and indeed there is one, I believe stems from two things. The first being the INCREDIBLY fragile state of youth in society, who have been convinced that they should never under any circumstances be made uncomfortable at any time. This drives them to levels of anxiety that we have never seen prior and they simply do not have the mental fortitude to cope with the most moderate of "trauma". The second is this idea of over population, so we must promote "trans" and MAID, so as to limit that population, to save the planet. We also see the failure of socialized medical care, as these systems are all collapsing, so [ending] a person is considered to be reducing that burden.

[@user-rm7zf4bw2b]

DON'T EVER LET YOUR LOVED ONES BE ALONE IN A HOSPITAL.

[@silentb2084]

Those marketing phrases are EXACTLY the statements going on in my mind f in the weeks before I tried “it.” This is SO messed up. 52:41

[@AmeliaHuckleberry]

Couldn’t they just use morphine or anesthesia meds to euthanize? Their method sounds absolutely ghoulish!

[@MaureenKilloranhypnosis]

Thanks

[@helenablavatsky9136]

I have no words.

[@TimJBenham]

7:00 Even if they are motivated only by concern for their patients in a hospital setting they balance the interests of multiple patients. There will be patients whose charts are a better fit to the euthansia criteria than to the discharge criteria. Euthanasia will become an aid to bed management.

[@AndyJarman]

I sat by the bedside of a 25year old friend with non Hodgkin's lymphoma. His chest cavity was hosting a massive tumour. Every breath he tried to take cause excruciating pain and a supreme effort. The doctors were afraid to give him anymore morphine for fear of the legal implications. He was 'sedated' as much as he was legally allowed. This friend pleaded with me for two days to do something, to make it stop. It was too public a place and I have never murdered anyone. What to do? This is how people with cancer die.

[@theradicalcenter]

It's truly heartbreaking. What did you think of Alex's response to this question?

[@AndyJarman]

​@@theradicalcenter I think his response "people don't have to die in pain they can be sedated" was spoken by somebody who hasn't seen this. I think there are always edge cases. I think the state assumes it is their position to decide for the people. But this is seriously wrong. We have to cultivate personal morality. Those who don't have the wherewithal to formulate a response need institutions like religions to map out ways of thinking about life that's better than a rule book. I'm currently reading Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism by Larry Siedentop. For me it is important for us to understand why Christianity and its prodigy Liberalism are unique. I can see the Achilles heel in both Christianity and Classical Liberalism, but I think it is state overreach and public complacency that is enabling the issues we are confronting.